Tom Springer has been named the new Managing Director of the University of Notre Dame’s Environmental Change Initiative (ECI), starting June 1, 2016.
Springer brings significant management and communication expertise to Notre Dame, including strategic planning, grant development, program design and evaluation, group facilitation, and program promotion.

Notre Dame Research will be participating in the Alumni Association’s Annual Reunion event on the first Friday of June on the third floor of the Main Building. From 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., the dome will be open to tours, where several offices will open their doors to alumni, faculty,...

Zebra mussels, a ship-borne invasive species, are such a problem in American waters that they cost the U.S. power industry alone $3.1 billion in economic losses in 1993-1999, mainly by blocking pipes that deliver water to cooling plants. Researchers looking for a way to predict where they might end up...

Fish probably get the most attention when it comes to gauging the effects that heavy metals have on Lake Michigan’s inhabitants. But overlooked in this realm of research are turtles. Being that they are a part of the ecosystem too, there is still plenty that scientists can learn by studying...

You likely won’t find any painted and snapping turtles headbanging to Metallica in Lake Michigan wetlands. But heavy metal runs in their veins. These turtles accumulate heavy metals in their tissues, according to a recent study completed at University of Notre Dame and published in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. Some of those...

McKibben’s lecture, “The Last Ditch Effort for a Working Climate: Report from the Front Lines,” will offer strategies and tactics for countering climate change in the context of the Paris climate accords, Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment, and the hottest year ever measured on the planet, 2015. This lecture...

Using web samples from black widow spiders fed with crickets, researchers at the University of Notre Dame have successfully used DNA samples to identify both the spider and the species of its prey. Such noninvasive sampling to obtain genetic information could have practical implications in several fields including conservation research...

If they successfully invade Lake Erie, Asian carp could eventually account for about a third of the total weight of fish in the lake and could cause declines in most fish species — including prized sport and commercial fish such as walleye, according to a new computer modeling study.

A new study suggests that Asian carp, which have been spotted in watersheds close to the Great Lakes, would make themselves right at home if they made it to Lake Erie. The study, published recently in the journal Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, used computer modeling to estimate the...

Notre Dame Research has opened its annual competition for the Library Acquisitions and Equipment Restoration & Renewal Grants. University of Notre Dame teaching and research faculty, library faculty, research faculty, and special professional faculty from all Colleges and Schools are eligible to apply. Applications are due Monday, February 1st, 2016...

Not many people have likely heard of Beaver Island, a large, isolated island located far off shore at the northern end of Lake Michigan. Home to roughly 600 permanent residents and accessible only by ferry or small plane, Beaver Island is a well-kept secret of remote Great Lakes shores and...

Sustainability is often thought about strictly as an environmental issue: recycling, limiting emissions or protecting wildlife. But sustainability is more than just planting trees and driving hybrid cars. More than 140 faculty members in 36 University departments are currently conducting sustainability research on topics ranging from corporate social responsibility to...

Each year, aquatic invasive species cost the United States economy billions of dollars. In 2034, the threat from invasive species will be greater than today due to increasing domestic and international trade.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Twenty years ago, Asian carp imported by Southern fish farms began their high-profile journey along the mighty Mississippi River toward southern Lake Michigan in Chicago, their most probable entry point into the Great Lakes.

At least one postdoctoral research position is available to pursue collaborative projects in conservation biology that would inform the management and policy of aquatic invasive species. The postdoctoral fellow(s) would join an interdisciplinary team of researchers, contribute to multiple projects, and would lead one or more subprojects involving: characterization of...

If bighead and silver carp were to establish in Lake Erie, local fish biomass is not likely to change beyond observations recorded in the last three decades, according to a study published in the journal Conservation Biology on Thursday (Aug. 6) by a group of scientists from the University of...

David Lodge, Ludmilla F. and Stephen J. Galla Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame and a world-renowned expert on invasive species, has been named a 2014-15 Jefferson Science Fellow…

EATING TO EXTINCTION
Lionfish sushi is delicious. Roasted burdock, not so much. John Mirabella
My quest to understand invasivorism began with a plate of lionfish tacos in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The dish is a staple on the menu at Norman’s Cay
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Think of it as CSI for fish. Like the crime scene investigators on television detective shows, fisheries scientists are relying on a technique called eDNA (environmental DNA) to search the Great Lakes for evidence of Asian carp that are too sparsely spread to be captured by electrofishing, netting or poisoning.…...

HealthyLakes.org features the success of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) grant, a grant allowing researchers from the University of Notre Dame and Central Michigan University to quantify the prevalence of invasives in the bait trade. The researchers collected samples of tank water from 525 bait shops across the Great Lakes...

University of Notre Dame scientists have now published the first detailed investigation of just how small (or big) environmental DNA, or eDNA, particles really are, and their results provide important guidance for all eDNA monitoring programs. Like investigators combing a crime scene for DNA traces from suspects or victims, ecologists now apply similar...

An Asian species of fish called grass carp could survive in all of the Great Lakes at the heart of North America, according to a new study, and if they get established, they might significantly damage the environment. The five lakes border the U.S. and Canada. A river links them...

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Plant-gorging grass carp probably could survive in all of the Great Lakes, scientists said Monday, adding that if the fish get established, they might significantly damage the environment. The fight to prevent Asian carp from reaching the inland seas has focused primarily on bighead and silver...

Scientists from the University of Notre Dame, Resources for the Future and the U.S. Forest Service presented their findings of the effectiveness of different Asian carp prevention barriers in a study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. “Our study goes beyond just presenting barrier options by putting...

Placing dam-like structures in Chicago waterways would be an almost foolproof method of preventing Asian carp from reaching Lake Michigan, while a less pricey electric barrier system also has solid prospects for shielding the Great Lakes from the invasive fish, according to a scientific analysis released Wednesday.

David Lodge David Lodge, Ludmilla F. and Stephen J. Galla Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame and a world-renowned expert on invasive species, has accepted a nomination to join the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Science Advisory Board (SAB). Established in 1997, the SAB is...

SOUTH BEND -Notre Dame scientists have found evidence of Asian silver carp in Lake Michigan for the first time. A water sample collected by Chris Jerde of Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative tested 100% positive for the invasive species. It was the only sample out of 50 taken from Sturgeon...